Shinigami's Flock
by stardarkening
Summary: Duo has been seeing the smoke for a while, but the other pilots still get caught in the fire. He doesn't sit idle and the foolish old men that think to use the new peace to their gain have apparently already forgotten what the war taught them.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing (you know, the ideas, characters...things like that) just Ni the pigeon...

**Shinigami's Flock**

**By Stardark**

Lost Wufei first.

We had all been pretty solitary after the first war had ended; Wufei most of all. Perhaps that was why he got a little carried away trying to create his place in the new order. I was determined to watch out for the others better than I had been doing, so after the Rebellion was squashed and I almost lost Wuffers _again_… Well, their reactions to me and the attitudes were just the same as during the war and if it was a bit disappointing, it didn't stop me before from befriending them and it won't even slow me down now.

A year of watching Heero struggle with his peace identity and his future direction alone, had me now prepared to offer him that place with me or beg for a place next to him. We'd been together as much as I could stand during the war; my past intruding under such high stress, but I'd spent some quality time with Dr. Janet since, getting a handle on it so I could be completely ready for him. I think half the reason Heero left to work with Relena, was that he didn't like that stress I was under. He was surprisingly patient for a man of drill sergeant mentality, so although he had written me periodically, he stayed away to let me work through my problems. Truthfully, he wasn't all 'there' either, and I know it bothered him when he accidentally held me too hard, or left bruises in his passion. His letters never mentioned it, but I know he was taking the time to do a little 'retraining' of his own.

After a few positive communications, he had disappeared from Relena's side about two months prior to the Rebellion and I'm fairly certain I had a Heero-stalker, because the Perfect Soldier might have what it takes to hide from Shinigami but Ni certainly doesn't. Yep, the way things were going, if White Fang hadn't tried to take blow up the world, I'm pretty sure we'd already be together…fuckers.

Ni, was the silly bird he found injured on one of his tours of duty as Relena's bodyguard. He'd found it in one of those large earth cities where tourists feed the pigeons like they're something special rather than the bane of most Earth mayors. It had been sickly and weak when Relena had taken her turn at pigeon feeding and for some reason the Perfect Soldier had scooped up the bird and brought it back with him when he noticed it had not been able to move to the scattering of grain that the other birds were eating.

It was a mangy black thing, with most of its feathers on its back gone, courtesy of other angry pigeons or a cat, but he couldn't leave it. He'd even called Trowa, to get help for the ailing bird and Trowa had told him to call me and see if a Sweeper medics was in the area and could write it a prescription he recommended for the bird. It had still been sick for weeks, but Heero was mission dedicated. He hand fed it for freaking weeks! It got so attached to him, Ni, stayed with Heero through all of his travel; once he even escaped his keeper and found his human during a tour of Earth Pre-colony art. I still have the footage of Relena admiring some naked statue and Ni winging down from wherever he'd managed to get in, and landing on the figure's shoulder. Apparently Ni was part homing pigeon, because it happened twice more before Heero just started to take him on all Earth travel with him. The bird is amazing and even manages space travel, I'm pretty sure he has help getting onto the shuttles, but I won't tell. I've even seen it outside Heero's hospital window and made sure it could get some food. Stupid bird… so maybe I was a bit jealous...

Regardless, Quatre got weekly e-mails from me reminding him to take it slow and go see that new movie with Trowa; Trowa got bi-weekly e-mails reminding him that not only would Quatre love to go see that new movie and that he _could_ ask him to take the time to go out with him, but that I'd still love to work on bikes or go eat at the local burger joint and catch up. Those two could get so caught up in Quatre's work, the blond would neglect everything or everyone else and Trowa would still just suffer it in silence thinking he was doing the best for Quat, that a reminder of real life was needed more often than not.

Even with all my e-mailing, none of the others had really responded much to my overtures yet. Trowa and Quatre replied with e-mails but no offers to come visit and Heero seeming to be waiting for something in particular before he made his move, but I got no response from one Chang Wufei. So after a month, I tracked his justice fanatic ass down and forced him into the loop. He knew about Quatre's nieces, Trowa's sister's wedding, and Heero's pet pigeon, whether he wanted to or not.

This was all pre-Rebellion though, so after I'd spent all that time and effort keeping Chang with us, I was rather annoyed to find him being called back to his colony in the aftermath of the Rebellion and not telling any of us…again. He might have thought we would abandon him because of his 'dishonorable' behavior or that he owed this to someone. He _was_ sent for by the remnants of his clan, through the new councils of elders they had acknowledged. L5 was filling out again from off colony families and those bloodlines that had bred into the Chang line over the centuries and Wufei was heir to not only all of that money and power but breeding as well. So apparently his duty was to go back and help it flourish; donate a few chromosomes to the cause... He also always wanted to restore his _home _and I understood that all too well; I decided to let him go… but not without an understanding.

And all that took was one lifted uniform, and I was asking Chang Wufei-sama if he wanted something to drink.

It had taken most of the war and one drunken night of confessions for Wufei to tolerate my 'mangling' of his name. 'Wuffers' and 'Fei' now only got me growled at and maybe a half hearted 'Maxwell!' if he was feeling feisty, but bastardizing his beautiful Chinese with nonsense Japanese titles was beyond his ability to tolerate. Thus Wufei's head whipped around to his grinning steward as I holstered a drink and slipped the note in his pocket. He didn't say anything the entire time, probably not wanting to encourage my misplaced paranoia. What's the point of passing secret messages in disguise, the war is over Maxwell!

In the end I just wished him to 'have a nice flight' and walked off the plane. No need to hang around and get caught; my message was very simple anyway "Ten months." Chang had ten months to contact or invite me to L5 before Shinigami would be coming not to him but _for_ him. The times were unstable and I needed to watch my friends more than ever, since they tended to play too nice.

I ditched the outfit in the laundry chute and sauntered out of the shuttleport. I sighed irritably on the way out to my car, I'd hoped that I was making progress but he's still as touchy as ever; he hadn't seen me in months and all he could do was stare. I mean sure, it was a flight attendant uniform and in puke green of all colors, but I know that skirt made my ass look great.

It's been three months and I've since heard how the L5 location is finally cleared of debris and an old resource satellite has been refurbished to serve as the base for the new colony. They shift it in two month's time to the L5 coordinates, and I have a ticket to the party; just a little check up.

But they dropped like flies after that; Trowa was next and after him I lost contact with Quatre as well. I hadn't heard from Wufei in a couple of months and Heero was still being sedated out of his mind to aid in healing his shattered body. Even for him, Sally Po told me during the week they'd allowed him to be conscious, it would be months before he could be fully allowed to become lucid.

It was four months into Heero's recuperation, when he was removed from the coma drugs for a time to prevent him from falling into a coma that had nothing to do with the medication. Heero had come out of deep coma as rapidly as always, but much to my disappointment, he couldn't focus much more than to grip onto my braid and whimper a bit when one of his many still broken and fractured bones was jostled. The coma allowed for rapid healing, but a pulverized bone can take a bit to heal up and some of his injuries were still tender. For my part, I just supported his hand, talked through his waking hours, and cared for him until they put him under again.

The lack of communication was very bad and I made plans, but between Heero and trying to track down the others, before I had a chance to do anything more… I was dead.

The people revolted toward the end of Mariemaia's Rebellion and Relena was their Lenin. Footage of Relena with a fallen Heero in her lap had miraculously survived and became a household icon. "Lady" Relena became the mother of all the UESN and space; touring and promoting her Peace, she was content and fulfilled in what she was doing and left more experienced heads to see to the day to day governing.

As always and in her defense it can be said she meant only the best but her trust was placed in the worst. Old snakes that survived the war, slithered into newly vacated or created posts; there was no more government, only the people and their Voice.

First, they began by providing jobs for the soldiers who were now without purpose in the new peace; many registered and were employed decommissioning their old tech. The armies of mobile suits needed to be dismantled and the 'soldier' was trained to do it, so many registered and found a place with the new way of things that the program swelled far bigger than originally intended but still was hugely successful.

This was at least after the first war.

After the _Rebellion_, files were opened and veterans were 'requested' to register with the new government, even if they did not choose to seek employ with them. This agency was called STOW, Soldiers to Warriors, and was tasked with rehabilitating the war scarred populace.

The Gundam pilots had before been tacitly off limits; friends of the Lady Relena and heroes, their files were destroyed and Chang, Wufei; Maxwell, Duo; Barton, Trowa; Yuy, Heero; and even Winner, Quatre were supposed to get new starts in the new peace.

But someone slipped. One of the pilots didn't clear his tracks or, and most likely, Relena kept something in her possession that left proof, because 6 months after the Rebellion Duo received a call from a frantic Quatre Winner saying Trowa had been arrested for failing to register with the STOW mandate and was under investigation. They had both thought it was a mix up, because no one could have their files and WEI could bury anyone trying to bother Quatre's people, so who would try? But after a week and he still hadn't gotten more word than Trowa was now under investigation for 'war crimes' and would be detained until the matter could be decided. This late in the program's history apparently, failing to register meant you had something to hide and ironically enough, Trowa actually did. However, I had gone over all of the pilot's work in erasing their pasts so I didn't know what they could possibly have on Trowa. Yeah, paranoid asshole, I know…I just…had to make sure they didn't miss anything. A third opinion and all that…

Anyway, Quatre of course had WEI lawyers on the case, but it was worrisome that they had even been able to prove that he had been a soldier much less hold him after all of this time.

**A/N: **Hey! This is pretty new to me, I read an awful lot of fiction, but never felt all that ready to venture over into the writing side. I'd love to hear if you think about anything I left out, or if I put in something that is just a bit much.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything related to Gundam Wing. I'll let you know if that changes

**Part 2**

Duo offered to come down to L4 and help, but Quatre said he had it under control. However, Duo, having grown up hard and paranoid about secrecy, made plans to disappear and move until he could get a handle on the situation. First Wufei had not contacted him since he had left and now Trowa was under fire, all while Heero was only now being scheduled for a small period of awareness this next week, from the coma he was kept in to heal the damage he'd taken in Wing's last battle; it all left his instincts screaming at him to do what he did best. Run and hide. Everyone was showing weakness and openings that weren't to be tolerated. He needed to get deeper into the shadows and come up behind the people breathing down their necks.

He updated Howard and let him know that the Voice had found Trowa and they might need to be able to hide him for a while if things got out of control. The Sweepers had done similar things for some of their other members when STOW came for registeree's and Duo had personally erased records for some of his wartime allies, like Howard, Hilde, and even Sally Po when her practice was beginning to draw unwanted attention. She had left Preventers three months after joining, frustrated with the lack of results and opened up shop on L2. She'd asked about Wufei a couple of times and was disappointed to hear that even Duo couldn't tell her anything about him. Because of Heero, she was currently consulting at an L1 hospital and only saw Duo when he'd come in.

He ended his communication with a side note that he hoped Jeanine at the hospital could keep leaving some seed out for Ni.

He'd done with his mailing and plans so he exited his office at the scrap yard, where he was staying with Hilde until Heero was allowed to wake up, and went to the back to the intake where Hilde worked in the 'mornings'.

After the Rebellion, Duo'd stayed with Heero at the hospital for a couple of weeks until Sally had convinced him that Heero couldn't possibly wake up until some four months later, but when he was taken off the drug they had in his IV, he would most definitely wake up. He'd reluctantly left Heero's side and went to work with Hilde at her family business on L2.

She was a wonderful partner and although they would never be more than friends, their one conversation on the subject was ended cordially enough. Hilde had told the braided pilot that he was welcome to stay in her room up at her scrap yard, one day at Heero's bedside. Thankfully all it took was a 'no, thanks;' she'd smiled and said that she'd had to try, and Duo had gained a best friend for life that day. They were still working together these six months later and Duo was now headed out to inform her of the newest problem and how that wouldn't be for much longer. First he had to secure Trowa, find Wufei, and wake Heero and he just had a sinking feeling nothing would go back to how it was before.

Immediately, out in the yard, Duo's hair stood on end. The noises were wrong and before he knew it, he'd pulled out his war pistol and a throwing knife. A pile of trashed shuttle panels and a beam saber base unit, that had actually belonged to Wing at one time, was where Hilde should have been working, so Duo slunk up, over the pile, hiding in the particle coil tube, until he could see the opened square of ground that Hilde filled with her current project.

She was backed up against a counter carrying power tools, as a balding government toady, wearing far too much white, waved a paper importantly in the air. Two other officials of an obviously much different capacity, bracketed her on either side and were reaching for her arms. Lastly, three more goons backed the toady, looking bored at threatening only one small woman; unless there were at least three children and a widow or two, they really couldn't shine and meet their full potential. Duo rapped twice with his Gundanium knife against the Gundanium saber hull. None of the officials looked up at just more clank in a yard of machinery, but Hilde tensed at the distinctive 'tink' of Gundanium. Shaking her head one more time at the paper bearer, she suddenly shrugged off the leftmost thug and broke the rightmost goon's nose. She then dipped under the work table and circled right, to the control room of the boom that the junk yard housed.

Duo had not been idle; he used the confusion of Hilde's flight to throw his first knife between the sixth and seventh vertebra of the closest man in the three man cluster, closely followed by another he pulled from his waist. Both men dropped, lives silently ended. The snow-blindness-inducing man was shouting for Hilde to stop and for his men to restrain her, but he was down by two and a half muscle's and he didn't even know it yet.

Hilde had reached the door, but one of the original pair of officers was on her back. She made as if to grab the handle, but turned with the momentum to punch at his jaw. He caught her fist in time, but couldn't dodge the knee to his groin. He had been wearing some kind of protection, but she was ex OZ and it still stunned him long enough for Hilde to jam an elbow down onto his exposed spine at his neck. He dropped with a pained grunt and Hilde took no chances and kicked him in the temple.

That left the man with the broken nose, a lone unscathed thug, and their fearless though pale leader.

Duo finally showed himself and climbed down from his perch, but his enemies seemed too busy checking the status of their downed number to see him, so he thought to make it easy, "can I help you gentlemen?"

Fancy Uniform whirled on him, the papers in his hand a bit damp and crinkled from the recent activity, "what is going on here? I am here under official jurisdiction to detain one," he looked at his wrinkled papers, "Maxwell, Duo, who is charged with failing to register with STOW and suspected of war crimes."

"So you were assaulting Hilde…?"

"Ms. Schbeiker refused to answer our questions and I placed her under arrest for aiding a wanted man" the lead man blustered.

"Did you think that maybe _you _were the one that should have been answering questions?" Duo kept strolling, passing the lone man and continuing on, to get between Hilde's position and the bleeding officer. "All employees here on L2, have had to provide background checks run by _your_ employers and they have all come back clean. So one man comes here, leading five muscled idiots and demands one of her employees and then attempts to 'arrest' her as well? What is she supposed to do?" Duo sauntered closer, gun still down by his side, and although the two remaining muscle took notice their leader was still too in shock to pay attention to the threat.

"How dare you question a legitimate Voice official, I have my orders and you will be charged with obstruction as well; where is Duo Maxwell?"

Duo shrugged "legitimately what? Hard of hearing? Who Are You? And why are you attempting to detain our employee, he has already been cleared by the Voice?"

Hilde was moving in the background, as if to come up by Duo, but he signed for her to find a better position and hold. This was still going to get ugly, but if the idiot actually knew anything, Duo wanted those answers.

"I am Mr Oliviand Barton and work closely with the Preventers in finding those soldiers reluctant to register and comply with the new regulations. Mr. Maxwell was only recently revealed to have participated in war activities by one of our registered number and it was apparently missed during the original processing period. It is rather embarrassing really, he appeared in a broadcast as a prisoner of war and was one of the Gundam Pilots. It is in your best interest to hand him over, he is very dangerous and could help us manage the others as well; measures are being taken, but they are still mostly unfettered." Oliviand had finally gotten himself together during his official blather and was smoothing out his papers and readjusting the epaulets on his uniform that were slightly eschewed.

He was an aspiring dictator, short, heavily weighted down with awards and medals he earned hiding behind his troops, and a very ugly hat that did nothing whatsoever to hide his lack of hair. That killed his dream right there, if he had trouble growing the stuff on his head, what hope did he have of attaining a funny mustache?

"So you think Duo Maxwell is a Gundam Pilot because of some broadcast that has only shown up now? You obviously haven't even seen it, if you are threatening Ms. Schbeiker to produce him rather than scouring the yard." Duo acted nonchalant, but he on a trip wire; one move from either of the thugs or one unofficial rustle from Fancy Pants and this would all end. They had the footage! Or at least someone with their own copy, because Duo had made damn sure to destroy the original broadcast material and any and all copies as soon as they showed up anywhere online. Quite honestly, the only 'registered' soldier that would possibly have had and kept a personal hard copy would have been…his executioner, the Lady Une.

Oh that was Bad. If Une, was the one giving evidence, that could explain how Trowa was busted. He had infiltrated a couple of units led by her during the war and if she had kept personal records, like it seemed, of her war activities then Trowa and he were definitely ousted. Geez, only a schizo would keep something like that to look back at fondly!

As if in confirmation, the pompous fool blathered on "the proof came from the personal records of a former and very highly ranked OZ officer who has since been successfully rehabilitated and works for the Preventers organization. And I have no need of actually seeing the footage to carry out my duty. Produce Duo Maxwell, you have heard the charges and the evidence so bring him forward now!"

Duo sighed, all his plans were now shot; Hilde would need to get out with his planned identity and bolthole and he would have to jury rig a new persona and track down a certain Heavy Arms pilot in the mean time.

He walked forward to the two downed men, kicked them over, and casually removed his knives from their bodies; wiping them on their shirts to clean them. He replaced them in waist sheaths he kept for quick access and said "well if you're so insistent, here I am. Maxwell coma Duo, but I'm afraid I won't be coming with you." The Barton stared at him in shock and his two remaining 'help' shifted to free up weapons and in a flash had a hold of Hilde and consolidated behind her, despite her swearing and writhing. "I do have one more question though," he gestured with the gun that had never left his hand "why did they send you and only five men? I am a Gundam pilot and more than capable of taking you all out without trying; Trowa may have come along quietly but I'm sure he has managed to escape at least once from wherever you are keeping him. I thought we were being left alone, I thought we had done our time, saved the Earth _again_ and now we would have time to live our lives in peace. We followed the rules, our files show that we were never soldiers, if you can even find those files…" here the ghoul grin spread across his face, "so why, I guess my question is, are you digging for trouble?"

The poor, _stupid,_ white fool, just smirked, still thinking Duo was intimidated because his people had Hilde and was trying to reason with him; "Mr. Maxwell we are merely making sure everyone follows the rules. The people don't want soldiers running around loose and three, though make that, very soon, only one of the most notorious 'soldiers' of the war are just associating with those same people. You and your kind will be the end of peace, weapons to be called back into service if left alone. If someone fights back there will always be war, so much like the now obsolete suits, you will be decommissioned." _Yeah, nothing new with that reasoning._

"However, each of you still has value and the Voice asks that you donate it to the people." Duo kept grinning but inside he was blue hot, "you in particular 'Duo' were supposed to have survived the L2 plague and many other deadly viruses, your antibodies are very valuable and I'm to bring you back dead or alive to determine if that is true." The nasty smirk on the man's face widened as Duo continued to smile, _that was new…_ "so come quietly or we'll kill Ms. Schbeiker and yourself; I don't need you alive, but it would make things easier."

Duo threw back his head and laughed, raw and chilling; Hilde struggled violently in the thugs' arms because when Duo was like that she knew who was to be feared.

"'Only one left' huh? I guess this answers a couple of my questions and honestly makes things a bit easier. I was just going to kill the ones holding us, hoping you'd learn, but if you wanted 'Fei, Heero, and Trowa for the same reasons you came here it is already too late. I'm going to kill you all. Shinigami was going to sit this out, let the peace grow a few more roots, but it is already infested." A couple more chuckles escaped, these deranged until even Oliviand brushed his antique, ceremonial pistol. "Now I burn it to the ground. Let me make this clear to you;" Duo pointed his gun in Hilde's direction "there are a couple of things wrong with your plan. One, I don't really _want _to go." He shot the two men holding Hilde between the eyes, Barton's eyes widened but Death was already behind him, "two," Duo's knife slipped in next to his spine and inside a lung "I don't really _plan_ to go either." He ended one more life by ripping the diamond cutting edge sideways through the bone and wiped it clean on the pristine uniform.

"Hilde."

She started and moved over to Duo. "So they've already got everyone? What are you going to do, start another war to get them all back?"The God of Death looked back at her, "Duo?"

He stared for a moment longer, before he sighed and his entire presence seemed to shrink back into his skin; he grabbed his braid and played with the end "I knew they had Trowa and was pretty sure they also had Wufei, but if they were taking out two today and I was one…" he gripped his braid tight "it was probably Heero. I've got people watching him, but if they send someone like Oliviand after me, then they aren't influential enough to get through WEI and the Maguanacs to get to Quatre and Heero is the only one left…shit! I can't go get him yet!" Duo paced, unconsciously drawing and holstering his knives "they won't be able to move him far for a couple of months yet, and they can't do anything with his genetic engineering until he heals enough, that should give me four more months to get 'Fei and Trowa out."

He fingered his length of chestnut brown hair and started to smile again, "first thing's first though I suppose," he moved off to grab some electrician's tools from the offering on the work bench. "Hilde, move all of the dead bodies over to the saber wreck, and pull the unconscious guy out of the way, maybe under a table somewhere… actually just stick him in the boom cabin, that'll survive the explosion. Oh and here," he cut off about a foot of braid, the remaining plait still well on its way to his knees "put this under the corpses" and he set to work.

An hour later, the widow Howard was escorting her husband's remains to L3 where she would meet with her brother's family and Hilde was on a shuttle to L4, in possession of a large account full of OZ money and instructions to stay hidden until Quatre came looking for her. The Sweepers had people everywhere and were all set with a job that Hilde could fill until they came for her.

It had only been six months after the "Peace" was supposedly secured and already the God of Death was on the move.

**A/N: It's hopefully a bit more exciting, sometimes I get a little to comfortable in a character's head. If only they could think the whole story through, I'd be set ^^ Hmm, little note here, I'm doing this without a beta at the moment, so if anything is glaringly wrong feel free to let me know. Punctuation being next to Godliness and all that.**


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